Thursday, August 17, 2006

Lebanese Army finally deploying

I wonder how this looks to an outsider. Two militaries, very peacefully switching positions. The Israeli tanks moving south, as the Lebanese tanks take their place. If there's anyone in Lebanon, or out of it, that still believes that Israel has any plans or wishes in regards to Lebanese soil (or water), I hope that these pictures show them how wrong they were. Israelis don't want to occupy Lebanon. Never did. Not for land, not for water, not for anything.

I hope Lebanon grabs the chance it's been given and make the most of it. This is their chance to finally get rid of the Iranian de-facto occupation of the South and reclaim their land. Current decision to allow Hezbulla to stay, and armed at that, even if their weapons are concealed, doesn't look very promising. I hope this is only phase one. I hope that the Lebanese government will have the sense to gradually and thoughtfully, yet decidedly and not too slowly, disarm the Hezbulla and take real control over the region.

3 comments:

I too hope that the Lebanese government will realise that the problem is with Hezbullah and not with Israel. It's probably going to take longer than most would want to get rid of them.

On another note it will take a lot of money to repair Lebanon and I hope that Hezbullah don't get all the credit, this has already been in the news. Hezbullah have been out there repairing schools, bridges and roads. It looks like the propergander machine is working overtime.

I think its a very delicate balancing act for the Lebanese government. It cannot act swiftly to disarm Hezbollah but it cant wait for the next conflict to erupt either.

This is all still in development - I believe that the decision reached to allow Hezbollah keep its weapons (as long as it is out of sight) is important. From what I understand from the Lebanese press, if anyone has a visible weapon in South Lebanon, the Lebanese army has the right to disarm them. At the moment, the government wants to steer clear of mass disarmement.

After seeing what's going on in the wider Muslim world since the cease-fire, I've abandoned all hope.

Israeli Mom, fortify your bomb shelter and make sure it's well stocked with diversions for your kids. And pray.

Knowing the Lebanese, I fully expect the Lebanese army to be disarming. But it will be disarming no-one. Let's not confuse verbs and adjectives here.

Hezbullshit is basking in the glory of the Arab understanding of "an Israeli defeat". They are emboldened by the the 1,000 Lebanese deaths - fewer mouths to feed in their self-creatd poverty state. They will be coming after Israel just as soon as the giant plane-load of missles arrives from Russia, via Iran, and they rebuild some of the civilian structure in Bint Jebail so that they have somewhere to store their Katyushas - and someone to take hostage.